North beats South 34-0 in Lions All-Star Football Game

REDDING &GT;&GT; If the 37th annual Lions All-Star Football Game was a fight, it would have been stopped before halftime.

The North led 34-0 at the break, powered by Connor Silveria's three touchdowns, and went on to a 47-0 victory late Saturday night at Shasta College Memorial Stadium for its sixth straight triumph in the series, the longest streak by either side in the game's history that pits the top graduated high school seniors from the Oregon border to north of Sacramento in a North vs. South format.

Silveria, who had to have been the runner-up for the Ray Francis Award, given to the game's most valuable player, ran for two TDs and caught a 23-yard score in a night that belonged to the North.

Instead, the MVP award went to defensive end Skyler Ferguson of Enterprise after he spearheaded the shutout effort.

Silveria, the Central Valley running back who added a fourth TD early in the fourth quarter that left the North ahead 47-0, wasn't the lone standout, though.

Hamilton's Austin Burbank, one of five area players on the North, intercepted the South's first pass attempt on the fifth play of the game.

But the South provided a rare highlight on the ensuing drive.

On fourth-and-goal from the South 1-yard line, North running back Blake Burnett was stopped short of the end zone, giving the ball back to the South.

Any momentum gained was short-lived.

On the third play after the stop, South quarterback Jackson Hopking was tackled in the end zone by Thomas Lowe of Corning and Enterprise's John Boshell for a safety with 9:28 left in the first quarter.

From then on, there was no stopping the North as it posted the first shutout in series history and the largest margin of victory.

Burbank added a second interception in the fourth quarter, and Orland's Vic Raigoza had his share of tackles, all part of a game that belonged to the North.

8-man game

NORTH 28, SOUTH 6 &GT;&GT; Princeton's Lucas Hubbard hit a wide-open Dakota Woodward for a 65-yard TD pass with 19 seconds left in the first half, but that was the only score for the South.